The Francois de Wendel of the present day is a Pooh-Bah; his connections and directorships would fill a dozen of these pages. He is among other things a director not only of the French but of the German De Wendel companies. But that coincidence does not set forth his true qualities of being a Pooh-Bah. Is Francois de Wendel, President of the Comite des Forges, faced with a financial problem? Then let him consult Francois, de Wendel, Regent of the Banque de France. Is he in need of political support? Francois de Wendel, Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Meurthe-et-Moselle, intimate and supporter of Andre Tardieu, one-time controller of some sixty deputies, is the man for him to see. Does this or the other piece of news need to be "interpreted"? He cannot do better than consult that powerful journalist, Francois de Wendel, who owns a majority interest in Le Journal des Debats, is the head of the group that in October, 1931 (jointly with the Comite des Houilleres, the coal cartel), purchased the semiofficial newspaper of the French government, Le Temps, controls the Journee Industrielle, and is a power in the management of Le Matin and L'Echo de Paris. Yet for all the illustriousness of this multi-sided man, the newspapers of France almost never mention his name. He does not like publicity.

Double-Edged Sword

Conspirators is not an unfair word to apply to the armament makers of France--yet it must not be said with any melodramatic connotations. Probably the conspirators are not bad men at all in their personal lives and their individual contacts with society. Sir Basil Zaharoff, the passion of whose declining years is orchid culture, would probably not be aghast at the suggestion that he was the greatest murderer the world has ever known. He has heard it too often. And he may even enjoy the irony of his gifts (they took a few millions out of the hundreds of millions he made from the World War) for hospitalization of the war wounded. But probably Eugene Schneider and Francois de Wendel are lovable old gentlemen who weep at a Chopin ballade. If an Advance Angel of Judgment should undertake today to quiz the De Wendels of Eugene Schneider on the others of their business they would unquestionably answer; (a) they didn't invent the passions and cupidities that lead to war, (b)if they didn't supply the demand for armaments someone else would, and (c)they inherited the business, anyway.

All of which is perfectly true. Then why are these men conspirators? They are conspirators because they have no loyalties; because their is the sword that knows no brother. The rise of Hitler to power in Nazi Germany provides a neat example of this and into the bargain shows what a double-edged sword it is that the armament makers wield.

In Germany the greatest steel company is the Vereinigte Stalwerke A. G. and for its head it has Fritz Thyssen, king of the Ruhr. It was Thyssen who was Hitler's angel; who, as one move in a battle to retain control of his industrial affairs (dealt a desperate blow by Germany's banking crisis of 1931) began pouring money into the treasury of the Nazis to assure to himself the help of a friendly government. So far, nothing improper; if Thyassen believed in the Nazi philosophy, or the good it might do him, there was no real reason why he should not lend Hitler all the financial support he wanted to. In 1932 old Fritz Thyssen capped many previous generosities with a single contribution of 3,000,000 marks for the German presidential campaign. But old Fritz, despite his personally violent nationalism, was not at all hostile to the De Wendel-Schneider interests in France. He favored, in fact, a working compact with them so long as he could retain unhampered control of his own properties. We see, then, the spectacle of a Nazi supporter on the one hand breathing fire against France, and on the other sitting down on terms of thorough understanding with the principal armament firm that represented the implacable political enemy of his country.